The anniversary of the attacks on 9-11 presents a day to reflect, remember and pay tribute to those we lost. I am sure most of us remember exactly where we were at the moment when we found out our nation was under attack. Our nation was forever changed by those moments on September 11th, 2001.
Perhaps we can share our memories together as we think about the anniversary of this date.
Where were you on that day? And what memories are most vivid for you?
~ The Better Option ~
He stared toward a cloudless sky; a tear was present in his eye.
What did he see I wondered aloud – this man of strength did not look proud.
Transfixed we watched through a camera’s lens, strangers before, now oddly friends.
What are his eyes held witness to? What’s stirring such tears of painful hue?
Electronically we were connected, our lives attached, a stopped nation affected.
What horror was there, upon his gaze? – What caused such pain amid the haze?
Some sounds not known were heard aloud – and people screamed amid the crowd.
We struggled to sense what view they saw; the fireman’s face was present more.
His sorrowed eyes bleeding despair – my God, what was he seeing there?
I could not move, we stood transfixed, my view of hell would soon be nixed.
He bore my witness through those flames, this hell on earth from terror planes.
Our Eagle screamed….. the metal cracked; two once proud towers stood attacked.
The human toll still yet unknown, our feeling safe was overthrown.
Finally, as I stared, I recognized….. what was causing those tears in that fireman’s eyes.
Oh – My – God, humanity was being lost – and helplessly we saw the cost.
The sound of people,… people, jumping down, from towers strong in our New York town.
Locked in horror, frozen, all there stood – bewildered eyes saw nothing good.
We viewed a scene of great despair…amid evil, smoke, and hate filled air.
Connected witness we became, to terror’s rage and human pain.
Trapped atop a blinding heat, were once moms and dads upon the street.
A “better option“?… caused by hate – to leap the flames and own your fate.
More horrid thoughts we’d never known, not from before the glass had blown.
Theirs was not an option for the stair, their only choice hands locked in prayer.
I cannot grasp the thoughts that crossed – the minds of those loved, soon to be lost.
As victims now…. their life soon ceased, a hurling body – soul released.
and for those who bore witness, my God the pain; those memories seared will long remain.
Connected all we stood aghast, all witness to the terror blast.
Their bodies torn; their spirit lost; memories now……. a priceless cost.
But what we have now to decide; reflecting on this place they died.
The Blood-soaked ground, the empty skies, our throat in knots, our tear-filled eyes.
A memory now so deeply burned, their sacrifice for us was learned.
The hurt, the pain, the bitter sorrow, must guide us now toward tomorrow.
For those we loved, and families lost, no gold of man can count the cost.
Through the eagles’ tears our nations price, we must honor those of sacrifice.
How do we honor such courage bold and warm our souls despite the cold.
A daunting charge ‘mid our mortal stage – to reflect that courage amid our rage.
Two decades past and now we find – our hearts, our souls, our tears, our mind.
Still harken back and feel those tears; the wound -the scar- through many years.
Memories honored must remain, our task in life to cherish that pain…
For souls we lost, and sorrow bound – we must always respect such hallowed ground.
~Sundance
I was in the car almost at the dentist office when I heard about the first plane on the radio.
I was in the dentist chair when I heard a staffer come in and advise to my dentist that a second plane hit.
My dentist whispered, “I wonder if it is Bin Laden”?
I didn’t don’t know who Bin Laden was at that time.
Everything changed.
Many memories – one that really sticks with me, when I was young we had commercial building in the San Fernando Valley (LA) a few miles from the Burbank airport, basically right in last piece of the flight path for descending aircraft. Jets came in every few minutes around the clock, constant noise. First words from my tenant upon phoning him days after 911 was “Silence, silence for days, it feels so eerie… there are no planes at all” – the tone of his voice indescribable.
Our world sure did get quiet when all the planes were down. Then again under lockdown.
Three times I asked my old boss to get back into the game. Wasn’t to be.
Can only wonder ‘what if’, and be thankful I didn’t.
OOOPS! German Legislator Lets Slip the date . . .
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/ooops-german-legislator-lets-slip-the-date
I have had this translated. He said:
“Dear colleagues, this 24. of September 2022 will be a day remaining in our memories as a day we will say, I remember exactly where I was”
Thank you. We will be on watch.
Some of my most vivid memories after 21 years is how pathetic all the surviving first responders and families of those who didn’t have been treated.
My husband and I had dropped our daughter off at college in Madison, WI. We then went on to family in New York and on September 6th, my brother-in-law drove us around Manhattan. It was a cloudless day and he asked if we would like to go to the top of one of the Towers to see the view. We elected not to…
We returned to our home in California on September 10th. The next morning at 6 am my husband heard the news on the radio as he was getting dressed for work. He came into the bedroom and flipped on the TV — at 6 am! I was perturbed because I wanted to sleep in. I sat up in bed and saw the second plane hit. The word terrorism wasn’t yet in my conscience. It I remember saying — “something is not right. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and the Twin Towers are certainly easy to see…”
For days after, our family along with the rest of the nation, sat glued to the TV watching in disbelief as news enfolded. Our lives were forever changed.
I’ll never forget the pure blue sky and a feeling of lightness that morning. I kept thinking how could something so bad happen on such a beautiful day.
Watch team in a DoD command center – DC region.
Total cluster ***k.
I was home working on a job that was needed right away. Husband called said turn on TV. I watched for about 30 minutes and then went to the daycare first for youngest child, then the school for the other kids. The school was flooded with parents who had the same idea I had, “If we’re under attack, my kids will be with the person that will protect them the most.” As I was giving my children’s names to one of the ladies in the front office, I’m listening to the parent next to me, as the other front office lady was telling her, “Really, this is the safest place for them.” As my mouth was opening to rebuke this, the parent says, “Like hell you’re keeping my kids. I want my kids now!” No need for any other parent to say a word; we all had the same expression on our faces that they knew we meant business! I actually came across a cassette tape of my then 10-year-old child talking about the twin towers going down. Frightening day, and the days that followed.
Amazing that the rushed job I was doing, which needed to get to another State, the people were wondering why I couldn’t get it there timely. 🤡. No planes were flying anywhere for quite a few days. Stupid people
After the second Tower went down, the bridges over the Mississippi River (and others) were closed.
The locks on that river were closed. The towboats and barges were stopped in the water.
The clear blue sky and the sunshine coming from the East seemed to become a mirage after the news was announced on the radio stations.
The inflection point, for all we see today.
Remember, never will forget.
Turned on the TV, getting ready for work. And there it was. Watched for a time, then called a co-worker. He picked up the phone and said, what do you want, obviously he was not excited about going to work. I asked you watching TV, F no was the answer. Turn it on and take a look, this country is at war. What, was the reply. Just do it. He turn on the TV and then the phone went dead, he hung-up.
I watched for a few more moments and then went outside on the patio, at that time I lived not far from an airport, not close, but you could hear the planes that time of the morning. It was so quite, it was eerily quite. There was not even a car moving in the neighborhood. Driving to work all I could think of, who did this!
Now I see it as, their final plan was set in motion on that day! To hell with the Bush’s and their globalist friends.
I was administering a CVSA test (Computerized Voice Stress Analysis) to a police applicant at our Headquarters in South Florida. I was in the pre-test interview part; needless to say, I cancelled the test for another day.
Thank you, Sundance. 🙏
One day the truth of this horrendous event will be known and the perpetrators brought to justice. If not on this mortal plain then when they meet their Creator and are cast into eternal outter darkness where there will be nothing but the cries of depair and the knashing of teeth and fire hotter than any ever felt on earth. God speed that day.
I was on the way to work when breaking news came over the radio about the first plane hitting. My first thought was it was some sort of cruel modern version of Orson Well’s War of the World. Then I called home to tell my daughter to get up and turn on the tv (she & her friend stopped to spend the night before heading on to Dallas to see Melissa Ethridge), They would have to go back to Houston since both were cops. As I ran in the door at work the big TV was on cnn and 2nd plane hit as I got to it. My boss just looked at me and he said “This is real”.
I was in Manhattan, working at a well known hospital. I had fortunately taken an earlier subway train. We all thought we’d be getting wounded and it dawned on us as the day wore on that there were more dead than wounded. I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge that night in shock, as was everyone else. I gazed through the smoke to the still burning fires and the jagged outlines of steel. Unbelieving, as if in a dream, those gigantic towers had collapsed. When I finally got home we shared stories, I heard how my kids had ash and papers falling on their school yard in Brooklyn. We couldn’t sleep, there were non-stop sirens for weeks and then the funerals started. I realized years later I and many others in NY that day had some form of PTSD. My boss watched as she was forced out of the subway near the trade centers and saw people falling to their death. I knew several people in the towers that day, thankfully they were able to get out. Some of my friends had friends or family not so lucky. That day is forever seared in my brain.
Just dropped my kids off at school and heard it on the radio, rushed home and watched as it unfolded.
I was a flight attendant at the time and sat their and prayed for my co workers and other members of the aviation community. As all of you I was horrified but also grateful that my airline and friends where not involved.
Like now during Covid I refused to live in fear and flew first flight out of Atlanta as soon as they reopened air space.
The weird thing is that I always thought somebody some day would hit one of those towers. Many times when I would fly into NYC and we would have to circle because of traffic or weather I would see those towers as we circled and a few times see other planes to close. Never thought it would happen on purpose.
9-11 changed the world just as Covid had, I will never forget.
Thank you for the opportunity to share. Phoenix at that time working in brokerage industry, my day started at 6 but arrived about 10 minutes early. Walked thru the door turned to my right and saw my two co workers staring at the TV with hands covering there mouths in shock. They said a plane crashed into the world trade center. What kind of plane? (Aviation is in my blood)….Jet, Terrorist attack was my reply. NYFD and NYPD are heroes.
I had a flight that morning to National from ATL. Was thinking about rescheduling but decided to get ready and go, had to hurry. Much easier to arrive late for security up until then, anyway. I heard Boortz on WSB come on puzzled, saying a small plane had hit the WTC. I moved to the bedroom, looking at our little TV while pulling on socks. I listened to Gumbel talking talking talking….a plane winging in while he and the eyewitness talked. Said “Look…!” Flames.
Ok, I’m not going anywhere today. Later I heard that my Delta flight to National flight to National had actually boarded, then debarked passengers and several in the group were then ID’ed as suspects but disappeared. Crickets on that ever since.
My wife the practical one took the kids on to a scheduled play date. When the Pentagon strike was announced I called her to come home immediately. The world appeared to be ending, or something.
Later that week video cameras of unknown origin were found strapped to a pole, facing the Federal building downtown that housed most of the region’s agency HQ’s. Crickets again after the initial report.
It could have been much bigger. It was big enough, though.
I was driving down Bloor St. W. in Toronto. Had to pull over and catch my breath. Then ANOTHER ONE HIT. All I could do was cry and pray.
Sundance, that was beautiful. So honorable and respectful.
On that infamous Tuesday morning, I was strolling into work, 15 minutes before my 9:00 appt.
My co-worker Kathy’s, Husband Don was up there in the MA National Guard and called her to turn on the shop tv, NOW!!!
I stood there for maybe 5 minutes and called Pa, who was in Chicago, at a conference and was leaving for the airport, after a week’s stay.
Screaming hysterically, I told him to get a car, a van or a truck rental, RIGHT NOW!!! and COME HOME!!!
Pa got the last rental in the lot and it was a van, which was EXACTLY what, He and the other 9 co-workers needed. Prayers answered. They drove 24 hours in shifts, through all the traffic home to MA.
Meanwhile I drove to the schools, to try and get my 3 children and the driveway entrance was manned by the Police waving us on.
Went to my SIL, down the street, where she was babysitting all the nieces and nephews, not school age. Judi and I were both huddled and crying together, glued to the tv, with 5 kids running around us.
And the second plane hit, Tower 2.
It was the most condensed 15 or so minutes of my life. So much was happening, what a whirlwind.
Then the towers fell. Pa had already hit the road and I am not ashamed to say, by 11:00 am, I was drinking a beer, bawling my eyes out because Pa was so far away and I was petrified, shaking and sick to my stomach with nerves.
The kids came home from school and we all got into my bed and called Pa, for road trip updates and watched movies. My elementary school kids had no idea, what was going on. My High school daughter kind of did, but I wasn’t making a big deal out of anything and neither did she, that day.
But by the end of that day, I was completely bewildered and b!@#$%^t, as I had no idea, who, what, when or why, was a ‘Muslim terrorist’ and how on earth could they hate the United States so much’??
The great awakening began, right then, for Ma and Pa.
And honestly, outside of the Trump Presidency, everything we have ever known and loved about this country has turned to shit on purpose, since then. To this very moment.
May GOD have mercy on us.
The microphone went out right after she started singing The Star Spangled Banner at the NFL game in New York today. So the stadium just sang louder and louder. This is for the stupid Kaepernick kneelers, wherever they are.
GOD Bless America.
I was on my way to the local Mormon church to do some genealogy work. I was
in the car and the radio station I listen to the DJ are usually prankster so when they
first mentioned it I thought they were kidding.. Then when the top of the hour
came on the official news came on they mentioned it I knew it was true.
I remember my kids were in elementary school. Parents upon hearing all this
were pulling their kids from the school.. I kept mine because first we live in a town
in CT and I doubt it on the tops of any terrorist list plus thier school was under
construction so it would have look like someone had already bombed it. So I let
mine stay till the end of the day. I also remember them kinda telling us
during day where Pres. Bush was he is going to this bunker or this location
I am like why are you telling us this just let us know when he gets wherever
he needs to be then tell us .. He was coming back from the school he was visiting
and I guess he was taking several route stopping here and there for safety..
But I was are you informing us of this just tell us when he get wherever and can
talk to us..
My oldest called me today to ask what I remember he was in elementary school
at the time he said all he remember was the teacher talking and stop teaching
for a few min then carried on with the day, They of course didn;t tell the kids but he
said something was strange when all these kids started going home in the middle
of the day.
I also remember something Mr. Rogers said when asked about telling kids
about things like Sept 11th that could be scary.. He said to tell them… to look
for the helpers..
I was running late for a meeting two blocks from the towers. Then took the ‘wrong’ subway.
When subways stopped running, I ran out to grab a cab still not knowing what had happened exactly.
The cab sped down the empty FDR and at approx 920 was turning off to get wtc area. Luckily a cop stopped us and turned us back. Otherwise I may have been in the path of the buildings crashing down a bit later.
(Funnily enough my meeting pertained to Russian oligarchs’ chicanery. The meeting was never rescheduled. )
I was at home in “flyover country” with my oldest son, who was two weeks shy of being one year old. My husband was in California on business. I heard news of the first plane on the radio and absolutely could not grasp what was happening. I wondered when and how my husband would get home – did I even want him to get on a plane again? At the same time my heart was breaking for the victims, their families, the first responders…
My oldest son will be 22 in two weeks and he’s now an EMT, planning to train as a paramedic and eventually go through the fire academy and work as a firefighter/paramedic. Couldn’t be prouder of him.
Unsung Hero of Tower One
“I knew him as a hundred-and-eighty-pound, six-foot-one piece of human machinery that would not quit, that did not know defeat, that would not back off one inch. In the middle of the greatest battle of Vietnam, he was singing to the troops, saying we’re going to rip them a new asshole, when everyone else was worrying about dying.”–Hal Moore
“Hard Corps One-Six left ‘Nam with a Silver Star and a Bronze Star, got a law degree in Oklahoma, taught Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina, and retired from the Army reserve in 1990 with the rank of Colonel. He later got a job as director of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, where he was tasked with ensuring employee safety for one of the world’s largest financial institutions.
Rick Rescorla died almost exactly 10 years ago today. He was at his post on the 44th floor of World Trade Center Tower 1 on September 11, 2001, when a psychotic madman flew a passenger airliner into the building. When the Port Authority came over the loudspeaker in the building and ordered everyone inside to stay put, Rescorla muttered “Bugger that Blimy Poppycock” (or something equally British) under his breath, and flipped his brain right back into Commanding Officer mode.
It wasn’t his first time dealing with a terrorist attack on his place of employment – in 1993, when a truck bomb went off in the basement of the Tower, Rescorla had evacuated his offices, helping everyone out until he was the last man to leave the building – and he wasn’t taking any chances this time either.
He grabbed a bullhorn and personally ran up and down the 22 floors that encompassed Morgan Stanley Dean Witter headquarters, quickly and calmly getting everyone out of their cubes and down the stairs. Rushing up and down the building despite the fact that he was 62 years old and dying from terminal bone marrow cancer, Rescorla didn’t even consider slowing down until all 2,700 of his co-workers were safely out of the burning building. When he saw how terrified the men and women he worked with were, he went back to his old standby of singing British folk songs to try and cheer them up.
He was last seen on the tenth floor of the World Trade Center, headed up. Of the 2,700 people he had been charged with protecting, all but 6 survived the terrorist attack.
Crossing Tappan Zee Bridge Eastbound 8:30+/- to Tarrytown NY. Could see GW downriver and smoke in the air. Stayed at work till 11am numbly watching the TV in a conference room. Then went home. Should have went home immediately.
9/11/2001 about 5 a.m. Pacific Time I woke to screaming, strange middle eastern men with evil intent causing it. really shook me. all quiet at home. just a bad dream? as I walked into work everyone was talking about the attack and televisions were on. I thought about the brine shrimp reacting to other brine shrimp being dumped into boiling water experiment.
I was four months pregnant with my first child at work at The Private Industry Council. It was an absolutely beautiful day. First a co worker popped in to tell me a plane hit the tower. Then my mom called to tell me my Aunt who lives in East Babylon called and said they were under attack. It was all confusing so my boss, whose daughter was at college in NYC, took a VCR TV we used for workshops with an antenna and set it up in a cube by a window and we all gathered around to watch it all happen on TV. It was surreal.
But what I think effected me most was for days after the family members would line up to show pictures of their missing loved ones on TV. Soledad O’Brien was giving each of them some time to say what floor their person worked on etc. They were desperate for a miracle that we all knew they wouldn’t get. Even Soledad broke down and cried. This went on for days and I watched each night and I cried with them over people I didn’t know. I’m starting to cry right now. Its just so heartbreaking even still.
Friends of ours living in Cranbury, New Jersey, remarked on the cars abandoned at the station by those who couldn’t come back for them.
Wow. Yes, a sad observation.
I remember getting a phone call to turn on the TV. Stood there, with most of the family, just staring as if it couldn’t be happening here. Shocked. Stayed with me for a very, very long time. To this day, I don’t know how, or why, our government couldn’t stop it from happening. All the stories that swirled about, and then the “war on terror” and “The Patriot Act”. It’s a horrible realization to think that our government was somehow complicit. I banished those thoughts, until I went through the last few years, watching our government be complicit in so many wrongs, then all the wrongs come tumbling out. And even now, the federal government is on a search and destroy mission for people who don’t support them.
I couldn’t watch any of the 9/11 ceremonies today. Too painful. To those innocents who lost their lives, to those families who experienced such great loss, I am so sorry.
God bless you, Sundance, for this beautiful tribute. I prayed this morning for those we lost that horrible day and those who continue to survive without them. And for those who witnessed the horror up close and personal with their lasting sadness and fear and trauma.
God bless the good people of the United States of America who have endured 21 years of uncertainty ever since — for me, save for when our fabulous President Donald J. Trump fought for us and was beaten bloody (metaphorically) and is still standing strong.
I was at home in NC that day, 21 years ago. I was in the shower and my husband was in my recently absent freshman college student daughter’s room working on something, and he had the TV on to watch the first plane hit the tower. He came down and told me about it. I hurried to finish my shower and watched as the second plane hit. I said, “It’s definitely a terrorist attack.” I can’t describe my feelings at that moment: shock, disbelief, horror and, for the first time as a US citizen, vulnerability. I prayed for New York, and seeing Rudy on the screen gave me comfort, and I am sure he comforted all New York citizens. May God bless him for his great human work in that most difficult of times. Truly, “America’s Mayor.”
My barely 18-year-old college student called crying…and I had to reassure her that we had the greatest military in the world, and we would find the culprits and bring them to justice. Her first month or so of being away from home, and it was hard on her and us to have her away from us at that time.
Thank you, Sundance, for your beautiful poem and your strong love for our country that I feel here every single day when I come here. Thank you for your fight for truth and justice and the American way — our own special Superman. God bless us all. Thank you, dear Lord, for continuing to watch over us and give us hope and strength to find our way through the corruption and the sheer evil that is all around us. Amen
“… the building was brought down in what we know now was a controlled demolition.”
_____________________
Please, wrong thread for conspiracy theories.
I was a civilian contractor for the DoD working out of a Naval facility in California, contracted through Booz Allen & Hamilton out of McClean, VA.
Several of my co-workers were in the “D” ring meeting with military officials, 7 died, 3 from Booz Allen, 4 were .gov from the DoD.
No clue what happened in NY city and Shanksville, PA, but there are some people that know exactly what happened that day at the Pentagon.
RIP Gerald “Jeep” Fisher …
It was the third week of the new school year and I was in my happy place with a classroom full of Level I Spanish students, all yet pretty eager because they were still learning the fun and easy stuff. It was a beautiful day in south-central PA. The classroom windows were open, as was the door into the corridor. The kids and I were going through our paces, and suddenly I heard the well known voice of a good friend, a Teacher’s Aide, shouting my first name as she ran up the corridor stairs. The other classroom doors on our floor opened in response to the disturbance.
She asked if we had heard what happened in NYC at the World Trade Center. Before I could respond, the story of the first plane hitting the tower spilled out of her. She had been in the building office area and someone had turned on the TV, probably to check the weather forecast. This short exchange in the corridor occurred just outside my open door. Immediately the buzzing of voices started inside the room. She and I stepped back into the room together. I told the kids that a terribly serious aviation accident had occurred in NYC but we had no details yet. More buzzing, a couple of questions in the air about the possibility of terrorism, but with much concern expressed for anticipated serious casualties.
Almost immediately, the classroom TV monitors lit up all over the building – and on screen we all saw the 1st tower in smoke and flames. Youngsters’ gasps, hands flying to their mouths – and ours too – and then we all saw a plane appear on the screen and fly directly into the second tower. We later learned that the classroom television monitors were flipped on by error – by shocked adults in the Office who hit the wrong control while trying to learn what was happening, and trying to figure out how, what, and how much to tell a building full of other people’s adolescent children. The question of IF we should tell them was already off the table. The entire building had witnessed much already.
Soon we were to learn that the Pentagon was also struck, that part of it was burning, that there was a plane in the air that appeared to be headed toward D.C., and that it was now in Pennsylvania air space. Our Pennsylvania air space.
I don’t remember at exactly what point the Superintendent alerted the entire District (parents), summoned the buses, and shut down the school day earlier than the regular dismissal hour, but I watched, in real time, as each of the two tall towers collapsed, as survivors covered in debris struggled to breathe and to escape the still falling debris, as the Pentagon burned and was evacuated, and I remained glued to the coverage of the horrifying Flight 93 ordeal as it unfolded and as the plane vanished from the beautiful blue Pennsylvania sky.
The Flight 93 Memorial is more than worthy of your time and effort if you have not yet visited.
Sacred ground.
Heroes for all of human history.
Wow!
How does one say “OOPS” in Spanish?
An incredible story. Thank you for sharing it. I haven’t made it to the Flight 93 Memorial, hope to get there one day soon. God bless.
I was at home in a rural area watching the morning news back in the days when I looked at tv news. The first building was smoldering when I watched with incredulity the jet fly into the second. Fixated on the tv all morning I watched all the horrifying events. It was profoundly shocking to watch as the first building came down, then realize the other was doomed to the same fate. No words could possibly relate everything packed in that time. I had never been to New York, always been dismissive of that part of our country, and realized I loved that part too and felt immense sorrow and connection to them. I will never forget how absolutely quiet it got in the skies, how surreal that seemed. I’ll never forget that for a little brief second we were a united people and it felt really good. Didn’t realize how strong these thoughts/feelings were until trying to write about that time. Thank you for this place.
My old drive to work took me past Reagan / national airport.
Quite an eerie scene that week with all jet travel grounded in the days after 9 11.
I was a homeschooling mama of 6, the youngest age one, the oldest, 15 years. We rarely watched TV but it went on that morning when my husband called from work to share the news. It stayed on as I tried, dumbfounded, to take in what had happened and somehow explain it to my children. For my younger children, and those born after this fateful day, it is history, something far removed. For me, it is a still unbelievable traumatic event that I continue to unpack so many years later. Today, as my husband and I drove home from a trip, we were hailed by first responders with lights and flags on every overpass we drove under…So we never forget.
Sorry Queensbard….found in the bin. 🙁
Never forget
Beautiful, although haunting and moving poem. Thank you, Sundance.
Where I worked at that time, television sets were in hallways and foyer areas although they were only on during emergencies (hurricanes, etc.). Sitting at my desk in an office, it suddenly seemed quiet and I wondered if anyone was still in the building when a coworker breathlessly stuck his head in my door and claimed an airplane had just flown into a building and he rushed on alerting others.
I sat stunned for a moment, thinking some air traffic controller had made a horrific mistake, then went to the foyer area at the end of the hall where a crowd had gathered watching the tv’s. I could not believe my eyes. I went to the bathroom, and came out just in time to see the 2nd plane. Told my supervisort I had to go home, so I left and cried all the way home, and sat glued to the tv the remainder of the day.
Horrendous, inability to comprehend how it could have happened. Overwhelming grief and the sense the world would never be the same.
I was scheduled to go out in the field that day to collect water samples from a lake and couple of wells for chemical analysis. They’d need to be packed in iced coolers and air-express-freighted out to the laboratory.
Because nothing was permitted to be in the sky the rest of the day, that scrubbed my sampling expedition.
Went to the office briefly to touch base, then back home to watch the Tee-vee the rest of the day
Sobering – utterly sobering
I’m watching the 50-views video just now
They f#cked us good that day
Same thing I say about Dec 7
I was working at my desk in Switzerland when a friend called me from Germany, very agitated, to tell me the news. I was very disturbed and annoyed because I couldn’t really grasp what she was saying. But then I went to the Internet and was able to see for myself what had happened. It was very painful, but I had to keep watching the live coverage. I went to tell my boss and my colleagues. My boss had already heard what had happened from her husband, and was listening to news over the radio. We talked a little bit about it, then I went back to my office to watch more. After I got home, I was glued to the TV. I tried to call my parents in New York but couldn’t get through because phone service to New York had mostly stopped. I e-mailed a neighbor who told me my parents and all the neighbors were okay.
I was scheduled to fly to New York later in September, and I went into Manhattan. The subway wasn’t running normally, as there had been severe damage at or near the World Trade Center. There were lots of armed soldiers in the streets downtown, I believe there were even tanks, and many streets were inaccessible. The dust and bad smell were still in the air. There were posters of people looking for other people.
I was struck by how normal everything seemed in midtown Manhattan. Life seemed to be going on as if nothing had happened.
I had often gone to the World Trade Center on my previous visits to New York. For years after 9/11/2001 I had recurring dreams of being there again.
Every year I have to pull this up… warning: keep the Swiffer dry cloths handy, ‘cuz it’s gonna get a little dusty…
“09.21.01: The final call from Flight 93”
I remember that Reader’s Digest of all things had warned us about Osama Bin Laden after the police had found that van full of explosives under the World Trade Center. I remember walking into a crafts shop (for a class) and they were watching TV. One plane had hit the tower. We saw the second plane hit and we all said that it couldn’t be an accident. Then we stayed glued to the set until the last plane went down because that last one was heading to the White House as far as anyone knew.
My Mom and I were having breakfast at the Embassy Suites in New Orleans.
When news came on of the second strike, the group of National Guardsmen (and women) rose as one and RAN out of the room…they had been called to duty.
My then-fiance (career military guy) called and told us to GET OUT AND GO HOME!!! (an hour away) —that the New Orleans World Trade Center was a few blocks from us! We didn’t know at that time if they were planning on hitting more targets…
We went home and watched TV all that day and night.
I remember vividly the chaos, confusion, tragedy.
It was like watching a horror movie, only it was horribly real.
I remember.
I was doing some work in the Ford Engine plant, a 2nd shift gig.
Take the kids to school in the morning, get home in time to see the 2nd plane live.
Got a call within hours that there would be no work until further notice.
Ford plant is next to the CLE airport. Oberlin, just west is the faa control center that handled the PA flight.
Listening right now to a tribute on ‘scanner radio’ of NYFD communications as it happened. Wow. just wow.
tune in, it’s surreal.
I was having a late morning and so was just reaching to turn the TV off to leave for work when it was announced that a plane had hit the first tower. Stood there transfixed, watching the story unfold, my arm still extended, when the second plane hit. Knowing this was no accident, I stumbled backwards onto the foot of the bed and began weeping for the suffering that had to be taking place within those buildings.
Over the next two days I lost 4 pounds (no small fete for a hypothyroid) due to nerves. Was a sales representative for a company that repaired surgical equipment to OEM standards, but quicker and at a more affordable price point. To support the quicker turnaround, the reps would ALWAYS pick up and ship the equipment overnight via FedEx on the same day we were notified. With ALL flights grounded for several days, we reps worked out a relay system to get our customers’ equipment to our repair labs in Florida and Alabama. I met the guys from Michigan and took their and my stuff to Columbus, OH and that rep took the stuff to the rep in Cincinnati, who took it to Louisville, Ky, who took the ever growing pile to Tennessee and on an on. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Almost exactly a year later, my father passed away. Even though we had specified “no flowers, please” out-of-towners still sent some and I noticed a card on an arrangement saying it was from “The Beamers”. My mother explained they were my father’s cousins via my grandpa’s sister. Then she said, “Todd Beamer’s dad is your second cousin.” It was absolutely stunning to learn this in that moment. A national tragedy that already had had a deep emotional impact on me suddenly became personal.
At my engineering workstation.. heard about the first one then went down and watched the second on TV. I went back up and seethed guessing correctly that our government had a watch on these assholes and did nothing. Our admin gal came over and asked what I thought since I was active duty serving in the Guard and I said “I am surprised they haven’t done it earlier.